Jeff's New Horizons Blog

Late last night, Megan invited me over to her town Guinea. I hung out with her and her friends, and she gave me a warm welcome.

In my first entry, I mentioned how chat messages disappear after just five seconds. While I still wish that was longer, the NookPhone does provide a log of all chat messages. So if you miss something, you can check the app to see what everyone said. That is definitely a helpful thing!

She gave me some cherries and oranges, and I accidentally killed one of her rocks. Sounds like a fair trade, right? 😛

After I returned home, I sent Megan a postcard with some apples attached.

This morning, Tom Nook announced that Blathers has arrived! I headed over to his tent to introduce myself.

He gave me a vaulting pole, which I can use to hop across rivers and reach new parts of my town! Those areas have fossils buried underground, so he provided me with a DIY recipe so that I can build shovels.

He also told me that if I supply him with 15 more donations, he can build the museum! Since I already had a bunch of catches waiting to give him, I met that quota in no time at all. So I should be getting the museum in a couple days!

In other news, my house is now complete. It’s not much to look at yet, though.

Tom Nook informed me that I owe him 98,000 bells now, and this debt can not be paid with Nook Miles. Fair enough. As a bonus, he gave me a Nook Miles ticket. This allows me to visit another island to meet new characters or gather DIY materials.

Timmy informed me that he’s interested in opening up a new shop, where he can provide more variety of items each day. But to do so, he needs my help to collect the materials required. I need 30 pieces (each) of three types of wood, and then 30 iron nuggets as well.

Gulliver was in town, washed up on the beach. He wanted to call for help, but his cell phone was missing five communicator parts. I agreed to help him out, and he mentioned Coralcola, which is a reference to StarTropics on the NES.

I crafted a vaulting pole, and Shari gave me a shovel. Thanks, Shari! I then crossed the river and explored a large portion of my town that I hadn’t seen before! I also dug up four fossils, and dug up my first glowing spot as well. Finally, I feel like I’m making a little progress!

Tonight, I found my second message bottle, and this one was from Friga. She sent me a DIY recipe for a butter churn. This will come in handy if I ever become Amish.

I opened my gate to visitors for the first time, after posting a notice on Twitter. Benji, Wasif, Logan, Max, Breezy, Vinnie, and Frank came over for a visit.

Just a few observations about online play that I’ve noticed:

• The loading time when a visitor arrives or departs seems considerably longer than in previous games.
• Seven visitors can come, but they arrive one at a time, so it’s a long process.
• The host can view each player’s passport (one at a time), but I couldn’t find a way to see a simple list of everyone who was visiting.
• With no mini-games, there’s not a lot to do. And it’s hard to make our own games without pitfall seeds (and I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether they’re in the game at all). At least in a few days, I’ll have a museum for museum tag.
• I learned that we can’t sit on rocks for some reason.
• When everyone is chatting, it can be hard to keep up. But the chat log app helps.
• The communication issues (for me) aren’t as severe as I feared in the first blog entry. But then again, people without a USB keyboard or the phone app may disagree. The on-screen keyboard does seem more inaccurate than the one in previous games.

Breezy gave me some bamboo shoots, Vinnie gave me a cassette player, and Benji planted a flower. Thank you all! I told everyone they were welcome to have some apples.

Breezy and Wasif left, and they were replaced by Sebastian and Alex. So Forest didn’t stay un-full for long.

Even without mini-games though, we found ways to have a good time…including having an old-fashioned net fight.

I don’t want to spoil all of our activities in the blog entry, because some will undoubtedly make it into my first Wi-Fi Moments video.

Vinnie left, and Bran arrived. For some reason, Louie seemed to be yelling at Bran!

After a little while, I ended the session. I finished up finding Gulliver’s communicator parts and took them back to him. He told me he’ll be sending me something in the mail. Sounds good!

I’ve decided to have my first Friday Night Forest coming up this Friday (March 27th) at 10 pm Eastern US time (7pm Pacific). Anyone currently on my roster is welcome, but I’m no longer accepting new friend requests (unless they’re from someone I know).

Also, please note that Friday Night Forest will not be held every Friday. Check the blog or Twitter for updates.

Early this morning (just after 5 a.m.), I tried to show more of my catches to Tom Nook before the new day officially started at 6 a.m. But to my surprise, the new day had already begun! So be warned that days start at 5 a.m., not 6 like in every other Animal Crossing game.

Anyway, the daily announcements began with Tom Nook telling me that the airport is now officially open for business. Their postcard service is also now available.

I got my first letter from Mom, and she sent me three peaches. I’ll have to plant them once I get a shovel. I also could have used a shovel when I spotted my first glowing spot this morning!

As I gave more catches to Tom Nook, he gave me some new recipes, including an axe and watering can. He also gave me a bag of red-hyacinth flowers seeds; I planted them by my house.

After the fifth creature, Blathers gave Tom Nook a call. Blathers is going to open a museum, and I had to place the tent for it. Yeah, it starts out as just a tent, but I’ll take it. I picked out a spot, and I can’t wait until it opens!

Tonight, I caught a fish, but had full pockets, so I released a bitterling to make room. After I did, my fishing rod broke.

I built a new rod, and I bought a recipe for a slingshot (though I didn’t have the materials to make it yet).

I visited Louie, and I really liked the look of his sleeping bag.

I walking around with my net out, and I bent over to pick up a weed. That’s when it struck…a tarantula attacked me!

The only consolation was that the tarantula also died (by walking into the water after killing me).

I spent some time in the Nook Miles app, claiming miles I had already earned. I also looked at other objectives to earn more miles. I even posted a message to the bulletin board just for the miles. It actually didn’t take me long to accumulate the 5,000 miles I needed to pay off my debt! That was really easy!

I told Tom I was ready to upgrade to a house, so it will be done tomorrow! The purchase also qualified me for a Nook Mileage Program upgrade. I can now use “Nook Miles+” for even more opportunities to earn miles. This works like the initiatives in New Leaf, but the ones you complete are immediately replaced with new goals. So you can really rack up the miles this way!

Down on the beach, I spotted my first message bottle!

It’s a throwback to the note in a bottle from Wild World, but they’re not used exactly the same. This one contained a recipe for a wooden full-length mirror.

I caught a squid in the ocean, and the text had a Splatoon reference! “Off the Hook” is the name of Pearl and Marina’s duo in Splatoon 2.

Tom Nook unlocked a miles-redemption service for me, so I used 800 miles to unlock a tool ring. You just press up on the control pad while outdoors (the way you used to look up at the sky in City Folk and New Leaf) and you can quickly choose the tool you want to hold.

My pockets were filling up with bugs and fish, so I had to place a bunch outside of my house tent for now. But I like how you can stack some of them on top of each other!

After shaking a tree, I was able to catch my first bee! Uh, I mean wasp. But regardless, I was surprised I got it on my first try!

I ended up not playing online today, even though the airport is open. I have all my catches sitting out by my tent, and I also didn’t want people with vaulting poles seeing the rest of my island before I got to see it! 😀 But I will be trying online play soon…likely tomorrow!

I’ll be back with another entry tomorrow! If you haven’t yet seen my video from Day 1, please give it a watch. 🙂

Hi everyone, and welcome to my new Animal Crossing: New Horizons blog! The game came out today, and I’m excited to start my new life on a (previously) deserted island! Before setting off, Timmy and Tommy gave me four islands to choose from.

I had a hard time choosing, especially between the top two, which are more symmetrical. I ultimately chose #2 (top-right), because both river sources were up on the highest levels. So I should have some nice waterfalls, or at least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

When my plane arrived, I saw that I had apple trees! 🍎 This is the first version of Forest that has apples as the town fruit! My GameCube and Wild World towns have oranges, and my City Folk and New Leaf towns have peaches. But I’m just glad that I didn’t get pears. 😀

I came out of the airport to find a gorilla and a monkey…definitely not what I was hoping for! The gorilla turned out to be Louie; he’s the gorilla that looks like Donkey Kong. (Even though Al plays the role of D.K. in my Mario Plays ACCF series, Louie clearly makes the better Donkey Kong). So he has, by default, become my new friend.

I’m generally not a fan of the monkey villagers (other than Champ), but my new neighbor isn’t even a typical monkey: It’s Shari, the CLOWN monkey! Ugh! And in this moment, I also realized that Louie walks around with his bare butt cheeks hanging out. What a lovely image.

Well, that’s how this game works. You work your way up, improving your town, after starting at the bottom. The bare bottom.

After a brief introduction at the plaza, it was time to find a spot for my tent. I picked a spot just south of the plaza, and near the beach. This way, I won’t have far to go when catching and selling fish.

Louie and Shari had spots picked out, but they wait for you to confirm (or change) their choices. Louie had a spot picked out pretty close to mine, and I just let him go with that. I didn’t want to get involved with him pitching his tent.

But for Shari, I wanted her to be as far away as possible. So I put her in near the river to the northeast.

Next, Tom Nook wanted me to gather 10 tree branches for a campfire and six apples for a snack. As night fell (the tutorial isn’t in real-time), we gathered near the campfire and suggested names for our new island.

We decided to vote, and everyone liked my suggestion of Forest (as if they had a choice). I know a lot of people think Forest is a boring or uncreative name, but it’s become a tradition for me. I’ve been naming my first (and main) town in each game Forest, going all the way back to the GameCube game in 2002. It wouldn’t feel right to me any other way.

Since my suggestion was the unanimous choice, Tom Nook declared me to be the “resident representative” of Forest. I believe this is basically like being the mayor in New Leaf, just without the title and phony elections. 🗳️

Tom Nook gave a toast to our new island and we enjoyed our glasses of apple juice. 🥂

Afterwards, Tom Nook gave me a camping cot, which I took back to my tent. There was also a portable radio and a lantern inside my tent. I went to sleep, and dreamed of K.K. Slider! This was a nice throwback to the GameCube game, where a similar scene of K.K. under a spotlight started the game. 🎸

When I woke up, the clock was set to real-time. Tom Nook gave me my NookPhone so that he can spy on me. Since I didn’t have any bells on me, he told me that I can pay him back in Nook Miles. That’s a type of currency you get for completing different tasks, much like the MEOW Coupons in New Leaf.

I browsed through the features of the NookPhone, and I earned some miles by taking a picture with the camera app and adding a note to my profile. I had two letters in my mailbox, both from Nintendo. One thanked me for downloading the game update, and it contained a Nintendo Switch. The other letter was just a generic letter for getting started, and it had a simple DIY workbench included.

Shari shared a recipe for a leaf umbrella, and Louie gave me an outdoor hat. It was ugly, so I did not leave it on.

Tom Nook offered me a free DIY workshop to show me how to use the workbench for crafting. I crafted a flimsy fishing rod, and that allowed me to start fishing!

I thought the fishing felt a little different (stiffer?) in this game, like maybe the bobber doesn’t move as freely? It kinda just sits there. I mean, it still flows with the water, but maybe not as swiftly as in the other games. It’s not a big deal though, and I’m sure I’ll get it used to it in no time. And still, I had no trouble catching fish. This bitterling was my first catch.

I also caught a horse mackerel, yellow perch, sea bass, a black bass…and an empty can. The can gave me an idea for a DIY recipe: a succulent plant.

When I showed the bitterling to Tom Nook, he wanted to send it to his friend (Blathers) for a closer look. Tom gave me a new app, the Critterpedia! It shows the times of day (and months of the year) that each critter you’ve caught can be found. Very helpful!

I then collected more tree branches to craft a flimsy net. I immediately tested it out on Tommy’s head.

After giving him a few whacks on the head, I spoke to him and he was happy to see me. I guess NPCs still don’t get angry over things like that. But with that bit of fun over with, I decided to use my net for its real purpose: Hitting Shari.

Unlike Tommy, she got mad after a few hits. Hey, someone had to test this out and make sure it still worked, right? 😉

I tried using the NookPhone camera app to take a picture of Shari while she was mad. But unlike the camera feature in Super Mario Odyssey, time doesn’t stop. So it’s hard to capture a moving target, and she kept walking off-screen. I suppose it’ll be easier once I get used to the camera controls, but I’ll need more practice.

Anyway, I also used the net to catch some bugs. A yellow butterfly was my first insect, and then I also caught a tiger butterfly and common butterfly.

I spotted a balloon present, but there was no way to shoot it down. Out of desperation, I tried shaking it when it was near a tree, but that didn’t work. 😛

After playing a bit more, I felt like I basically reached the limit of what could be accomplished today. A dodo told me the airport won’t open until tomorrow, so I can’t play online yet. And I don’t have a vaulting pole, so I can’t even cross the river to explore the rest of my town!

But before I ended my day, I wanted to test out some messaging aspects of the game. The good news is that USB keyboards work with the game. Unfortunately, you have to press the R button first to activate the keyboard, for every line you type. So you can’t set the controller down and just type. In City Folk, you could just type on the keyboard at any time, as long as you weren’t in a menu.

Not only that, but chat messages only stay on-screen for about five seconds, just like in New Leaf. And they still disappear when you go through a doorway! This could make communication difficult again, and that’s the main reason I didn’t enjoy playing New Leaf online as much as City Folk. It’s a curious decision, but hopefully this can be addressed in a future update?

Overall, I’m definitely enjoying my new island adventure in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There is so much to look forward to, and so many things yet to unlock. It’s going to be a great time, and I hope you’ll follow along! I’ll be posting a new entry just about every day, and there will be frequent videos as well. Here is the video of Day 1:

How are your towns going? Get some good villagers? Leave a comment below! I’ll see you all next time! Never Stop Crossing!

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Update: I just want to share a tip I got from Megan: Instead of selling weeds directly, use them to make leaf umbrellas and earn more money!